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Horror Novels From Around the World - 11/07/2022

I have a goal to read horror novels from around the world - no deadline. So far:
~Eastern Asia~
Japan: The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike, subgenre-supernatural.
South Korea: The Hole by Hye-Young Pyun, subgenre-supernatural.
Taiwan: Whisper by Yu-Ko Chang, subgenre-suspense.
China: *The Haunted House by Pu Songling (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), subgenre-supernatural.
*The Wailing Ghosts by Pu Songling (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), subgenre-supernatural.
~Northern Europe~
United Kingdom: Dracula the Undead by Freda Warrington, subgenre-supernatural.
~Southern Europe~
Serbia: Fear and His Servant by Mirjana Novakovic, subgenre-supernatural.
~Western Europe~
Germany: You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann, subgenre-supernatural.
~North America~
United States: The Spite House by Johnny Compton, subgenre-supernatural.
~South America~
Argentina: Our Share of the Night by Mariana Enriquez, subgenre-supernatural.

* Short stories from an anthology indicated in the parentheses.

How To Get Advanced Reader Copies Of Books

https://www.netgalley.com/ - This one is my favorite and have used the longest. This site is easy to use and has the same books offered as Edelweiss. You will have to read some of the lesser known authors to build your rapport, but once you get going you will find publishers will add you for auto approval. Just don't make the same mistake as me and request more books than you can possibly read in a month. My current TBR on there is twenty three books! Twenty three! Netgalley will send you an email when you've been approved for a book, along with weekly updates and reminders.



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https://booksirens.com - Fairly new to the scene it's easy to use like Netgalley. What I loved about this site though is they have stats. You feed your Goodreads profile in there and you get neat stats like this.

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https://www.bookishfirst.com/ - I don't know if it's luck or maybe the site isn't popular, but I won the very first book I asked for. The nice thing about this site is if you review books that you've read you gain points towards redeeming books that you want.



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https://www.edelweiss.plus/ - I don't use this site, even after I got over how horrendous the user layout is, it's like a crap shoot of actually getting books approved.

Cursed Objects Review

Cursed Objects: Strange but True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items by J.W. Ocker, read by Tim Campbell.
This is super perfect book to read or listen too during the spooky season. The narration was spot on and honestly he hit accents perfectly and was appropriately snarky where written. There are well over forty different cursed objects discussed in this book. Objects that range from ones that are popular to ones a little more unknown. I was going to make a list of all the objects discussed but after thirty decided the list would be too long. So instead I will go over my four favorite items discussed.
Black Aggie

Black Aggie is an unauthorized replica by Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch based/stolen from Augustus Saint-Gaudens who made the Adams Memorial as a grave marker for Marian Hooper Adams and Henry Adams. The creepy thing about it is that the forgery apparently rests not too far from Marian Hooper Adams last known residence.
The curse is said to cause a pregnant woman to miscarriage is she walks through the shadow. Online sources even tell that if you sat in the replica's lap you would die.
The Bronze Lady

The Bronze Lady sat in between two trees, opposite the mausoleum as if guarding the door to make sure no one should leave. It is said that if you slap or insult the statue you will suffer misfortune.
The Conjured Chest Jacob Cooley was a plantation owner who had his slave Hosea make a chest of drawers for him. Jacob Cooley didn't like it and beat Hosea to death. What resulted was curse that stated that it would be fatal for anyone of that family to use the chest.
0888 888 888
It's said that anyone who owns this number dies. To date there has been only three owners, one being the CEO, who died of cancer. The second owner Konstantin Dimitrov was in the mafia and promptly assassinated. The third and final owner Konstantin Dishliev was gunned down outside a restaurant. The number has been disconnected since the previous death in 2005.

Mexican Gothic Review

I have never read anything by Silvia Moreno - Garcia before. Her story telling is so smooth guys. I also am not one to read too much past my bedtime. I favor sleep over a good book, siding with caution on having more energy for the next day. This story though... I had 100 pages left and thought to myself, "Whatever! I need to know what happens!". It was worth it.

"Shush. They can hear you," Catalina said and went quiet, her eyes bright as polished stones."Who can hear me?" Noemi asked slowly, as her cousin's eyes fixed on her, unblinking.Catalina slowly leaned closer to her, whispering in her ear. "It's in the walls," she said.

Noemi is sent to visit her newly married cousin at an English manor in the Mexican mountains. The town - small, the road to the house - terrifying, the manor - creepy and neglected. It even has it's own graveyard. You couldn't ask for a better ghost story setting than this.

Noemi's father said she cared too much about her looks and parties to take school seriously, as if a woman could not do two things at once.

I am nothing like Noemi. I don't care for dresses, or parties, and yet I absolutely love her character. She's smart, and although vain, it's no more than what I think an average person is. She is not a shallow person and holds to her morals fairly well throughout the book.
You think the story is meant to go on one path, but it doesn't! Is Catalina (Noemi's cousin) going insane? Are there ghosts in the house? The twist at the end was surprising enough that I messaged my husband mid read to tell him about it.
Apparently Silvia Moreno - Garcia writes in multiple genre's, which is great since I find getting over book hangovers requires a different genre.